Server drops or taking forever to join, people stealing your stuff after watching you die or just killing you first. No fun at all.

The server problems are supposed to get fixed in the next day or so as they roll out 1.7.

As for the bandits... playing by yourself does suck badly but if you team up with 1-3 people then you are less likely to be attacked immediately as they wont be able to kill you and your friends in the first shot so they tend to not shoot unless they are very sure they can win and in that case you messed up badly and got into a bad situation.

The game is defiantly no fun by yourself though. As a team though it is one of the best games I have played IMHO.

Different strokes for different folks...

I've been enjoying DayZ playing a loner survivalist for weeks, yes it is not easy but you can't beat the intense and hostile post apocalyptic atmosphere, best game of the year for me so far... playing without co-op is doable as long as you treat the situation realistically and remember the movies "Road Warrior and "28 Days Later", don't run up to strangers and expect them to say hi, don't go blasting into the Zombie hordes unless you have tons of ammo and a decent gun, better to sneak around scrounging and picking your fights.\

I can see how this might not seem fun for some people, but for me it's been the best post apocalypse game since the Stalker series, especially because of the unpredictable humans.

I've only ever played it alone as I do not trust joe public to team up with. Sometimes the servers are hard to get into and I am sure my blood pressure has risen many times with the frustration but it's worth it when you get in.

I have started to get a little bored of Chernarus though if I'm honest and by the time it's at full release i may not be playing anymore.

Yeah I hope Rocket keeps adding more survival gameplay aspects, otherwise I will get bored too...

I have joined other survivors in the game and it definitely helps for increased firepower and mutual support. The trick is in finding other survivors that you can trust. I would be very cautious about doing that if I had collected a lot of good equipment. Many will just kill you on sight, loot your body and move on. Until the last update, those players were identified with a "bandits" skin when their "humanity" attribute dropped to a certain level. It's possible to lone wolf if you are careful. Stay away from the large cities in favor of small towns or villages for scavenging. As you pointed out the mod has a lot of issues, but it is an Alpha.

I am a bit confused when people complain about the technical aspects of the game, like the long queue to join servers. The (free) mod is an alpha release. That's one step before a beta release. As in, use-at-your-own-risk we-make-no-pretenses-that-this-release-won't-destroy-your-computer build.

There are bugs aplenty but the new builds are coming fast and furious. You guys starting to get burnt out on it might do well to hang it up for a while and come back when the mod is actually released.

When I play alone, I avoid others and just sneak around. Try to help if asked and spotted, but generally stay to myself and run up the east coast. Some great gear up there and up until recently, was generally deserted.

When I play with my group of friends I'm not worried about avoiding others. Most are shot on sight as its too much of a risk to have one of us in the group killed and have to either wait for them or go find them.

Both ways are pretty fun. Server issue is bad right now, but heck its a free Alpha and getting better.

I couldn't say it any better than that kludger. The Stalker series has a dark, post apocalypse atmosphere that I like. The DayZ mod has that in addition to the PVP element. I'm finding the mod intense, immersive, addictive, rewarding, unpredictable, buggy, frustrating, etc. The DayZ community is really active with new ideas to enhance the experience. For example, there is Dr. Wasteland who plays a medic with help from his cohorts in the game. They will actually help human players that are injured on the server that they are playing on. Somebody started a "post apocalypse" radio station recently. Those broadcasts can be listened to in game while you are playing.

So I don't know. There are several new commercial games that I could be playing at the moment, but I find myself going back to this free mod that is admittedly raw. I agree that some people may not find it fun at all.

I don't feel the need to defend DayZ or try and explain it. What I will say DAVESHQ is please keep in mind that this mod is in alpha stage, as in no where near beta or finished. Yes there are problems some of which are aggravating (the load times kill me personally) others basic. If you can't deal with the nature of a alpha mod and the problems that come along don't play because a lot of weird things can happen.

Don't trust anyone, treat every moment like your infiltrating enemy lines and avoid all contact zombie or human at all costs.

Sometimes I've waited 10 minutes to join server, others I never was able to log in and then I regularly get servers where I load in 30secs. I also hate all the jogging you have to do but at least I can apply those sim aspects to my real life jogging routine!

In all though when things are working (and they are more often than not) this is the most unique FPS experience I've ever played.

Perhaps DayZ is not the game for you, but since you have ArmA2 and the OA expansion, have you thought about joining us for Military Monday and Tactical Thursday? The log in is generally quick and we work as a team, though there is the occasional friendly fire.

Everyone who just starts tries to be nice to everyone. Then they get ganked. Then they get mad because they lost everything they spent so much time collecting.



Try being evil.... and if you have friends, make a gang.



Oh and then start repairing a bus with your gang and start running people over. MWHAHAHAHA



Ok I don't know what I'm talking about.

Yep, this mod is definitely something special, more of an experiment than a game. I started by joining other people a lot. It was fun, but there was a tendency for at least one group member to behave recklessly and draw every zombie horde to us. Still, this created some fun moments of dealing with everything going down to hell and the aftermath if you survived.

Lately, I find it simply impossible to do that, because in the majority of cases, other players just give it a limited time before they just put a bullet in your neck when you're not looking at them. So I've switched to playing the solo, hermit survivor. I watch other players from far, avoid them - it's sometime just entertaining to see what they're up to. But Chernarus is not as big as it seems once you start to do that. You start to go round and round the map pretty quick (I never thought Chernarus would ever feel "small" when travelling on foot, but DayZ made it happen), so maybe I'll get bored after all - in which case I'd say it's probably best to take a break now before being entirely done with the concept and come back in a couple of months or more when (1) some braindead players (or 12 years old) brought in by the hype are gone and (2) more features are in. In this regard, I hope we'll see some more mechanisms favouring cooperation.

I've found that I've done quite a bit of reading while waiting to get into a game. This isn't necessary a bad thing.

I started out by being friendly to everyone but after God knows how many deaths I've become much more wary in approach.

If I do team up I like to do it for a little while and then part ways after getting some new gear. And that's the issue; as you get better equipment the paranoia increases exponentially

Agree with a lot of the comments here. Once you get past the getting killed early on and losing the first bits of gear you collect you change the way you play. I trust no-one but i am not keen on going bandit and just popping guys ...yet I am just trying to stay alive atm, see how long i can last. I would like to set a supply stash but can not find a cool place to pitch my tent where it wont get either ripped off or some guy will stalk it and kill me as i go back for gear.Paranoid , yes. I would really have to think long and hard about going to help someone out now and if i do decide to i will not be doing it unless they drop their weapon. I find Cherno and Elektro are just hot spots for getting sniped and that whole coastline is pretty much a bad zone.

Treat them like Walmart shoppers, how many Walmartites would you trust to walk behind you when you have a loaded pack with goodies ?

Stay in the treeline, walk quiet, head down to bigger villages/cities only to quickly grab some gear and get back up to cover. Binoc or scope everything out every minute or so. Trust nobody.... NOBOOOOODY!!!

Wow I think me and Dave are the only two people on the internet who DON'T like DayZ. (or at least on SimHQ) That's definitely nothing new for me, because it seems like I'm ALWAYS the odd man out when it comes to stuff...

I forgive the server issues, but I figure those are more due to the massive popularity than the Alpha status.

I learned to forgive the bandits because I figured that's actually a more fun way to play if you don't have a group.

Personally I find the game incredibly dull. I love the zombie survival genre, but after 20 minutes of DayZ I'm bored out of my mind.

There was one night I was playing, and I managed to fill up an ALICE pack with food and water, and I had the Winchester and a decent supply of ammo. I was "safely" tucked away in a barn at night. I sat there and I wondered, "now what?" Sit in this barn until I run out of food? This was during the time where if you fired your gun, you'd get 20 zombies on your butt within seconds, so it wasn't any fun to go out zombie killing. As far as I could see there weren't any human players nearby to go kill either. I couldn't really see the point in trying to stay alive as long as possible if I was going to be bored to death doing so. It seems to be missing something. There needs to be something more to this. I'm just not sure WHAT.

Maybe it would be more fun in a group, but at the same time if the basic game mechanics bore you, what help would a group be?

It seems to me that players pretty much have to make their own fun in this mod. You practically have to make a game within the game.

It kind of irritates me a bit how so many people are raving about the game being like the greatest thing ever, because I just don't see it... I don't begrudge anyone for liking it though, it's just one of those difference in opinion things.

There's a lot of other little things about it I don't like, for example "fast zombies" and the awkwardness of the zombies and their attacks in the mod. I watched a zombie earlier today swinging away at me from 2-3 meters away, and I just sat there watching him for several seconds. He never hit me, and I was standing still. (and yet other times they smack you through walls) I think the limitations of the ARMA 2 engine are going to prevent the mod from living up to the perceived potential that people say it has.

Having said all that, I'm still curious about the mod's development and I generally try out the latest updates to see how they are. Problem for me is it all comes back to the basics which I don't find to be very fun.

i suppose i should give back partial credit since it is Alpha.

I still can't see people robbing you after you die improving upon final release though. Kinda reminds me of Evo in Arma1. Spend all that time getting out there only to get fragged by some idiot on your team who wasn't paying attention.

Whether they rob you or not you die, you lose your stuff.

Yup, i think that's one of the things people don't understand. You don't have one character with multiple lives, you have a single survivor, and once that survivor is dead, they're dead. There isn't anything to carry over because your new character is a different, new, survivor.

I agree with HogDriver. I think DayZ would be approved by the addition of a 'goal.' Even the most open-world games still have defined goals in them. It's important to have something to work towards.

For anyone who remembers (or maybe still plays) the game 'nethack,' the ultimate goal was to get to the bottom of the dungeon, get the Amulet of Yendor, then work your way all the way back to the exit. This was not a simple proposition, as dying in nethack was easy, easy, easy. But you kept trying to go down, because there WAS a final goal, and maybe you could eventually ascend your character and become part of a very select few players who've ever done it. And the experience was fun in the mean time.

Something like that would work in DayZ, maybe. Just like Nethack, every time you die you get a new survivor. So you should be able to potentially 'ascend' each survivor, too: in this case, they need to be able to escape Chernarus! Survivors who have built helicopters shouldn't be strafing people in Chernogorsk -- they should be high-tailing it out of the country. Once you've succeeded, you get a new survivor and try it again. Human players mean it's a unique experience every time.

Seems like that would make it more interesting.

Here too... but I don't feel the need to post it... when I don't like a game or mod, I just don't read or post about it.

I mostly do the same. If it's something I really can't stand, or have no interest in, I usually avoid it. I may not like DayZ much, but I am interested, hence the posting.

@Taosenai I like the idea of a similar high level goal as in Nethack, the search for loot game feel is very similar, maybe the search for some impossible zombie cure or something that you have to get from somewhere and bring back to the Hospital at Elektro, but it would need some serious play balancing so that individuals may still have a way to achieve it however difficult and organized clans would also not just be able to easily achieve it, hopefully there will be some gameplay enhancements like that eventually.

@Hogdriver I think those two hours 11pm-1am server time where you can't see anything before the moon comes out, are zombie and bandit with NVG hours. Although I spent one night on the coast during those two hours sitting up on a port crane watching the action as people spawn in and use flares, get chased by zombies, fight with bandits etc, and it was fun (and a bit scary) to watch, nowadays when I've been playing and the dead of night comes (11pm to 1am server time) then I think the thing to do is simulate sleep by logging off of DayZ. Worst case if I need to keep playing I can join a server in EU where dawn has already come.

One of the cool things about DayZ is just how open ended it is at this point, and since it is in Alpha and so popular I'm sure Rocket is getting tons of feedback and it will be very interesting to see where it goes.

I know it's been said many times and you are probably aware, but don't forget this is an Alpha. The game is being constantly updated with bits and bobs and I should imagine that it will continue to do so.

This is not the end product. At the moment people are finding enjoyment in the bare bones that it is so it definitely shows an appetite fir this type of game. I'm very sure that goals and missions will be added in the future.

Why? - for what I observe, that is basically the appeal of DayZ - literal openendedness. I think most people that get bored or don't like it, fall into a category of gamer that is used to be rewarded by their efforts in games, which has nothing wrong to it in itself, but it goes against the principle in the zombie apocalypse genre. Watch any movie about zombies - Do the humans ever win? You can survive for a long time, but you now live in the planet of the Zeds.

On the technical side, when you have a multi-player game where everyone experiences are different than all others, you can't just plan goals that can be accomplished by everybody. Either the the first player that got to it accomplishes it (which will make others angry they could not get that mission, or not know about it entirely), or you have to create a single player bubble, where everyone finds the same loot, in the same places, and does the same missions than everyone else.

Goals? Waypoints? Who needs that?

The game has a point - survival. Survive longer than anybody else, get the best gear - by any means necessary.

Yep, as a dev myself I appreciate fully that they're still steaming ahead on it. I was impressed by what I saw. I'd say DayZ right now is a foundation, waiting for a full game to be built on top of it. When that happens, it may very well be a masterpiece.

I think Rocket is enjoying the "Social Experiment" he has on his hands.

He's stated in the forums, the Goal is to stay alive. Every minute of life is your reward.

He is a sick #%&*$#

There are a few active threads over at the DayZ forum that debate the addition of missions, objectives, goals, etc.

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=9445

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=9212

I think groups and teams that play together in DayZ do establish goals and put together missions to achieve them. For example, repair a vehicle or helicopter and use it to achieve other goals. Some people want more structure in the game and some don't. There are groups with structured objectives already such as a medical team that assists wounded players and a secure trading post that is being organized. Survivor radio has come online recently to name a few. I'm sure the developer is looking at any good ideas that the community has to enhance the experience and maintain the interest in the game. Personally, I don't disagree with adding more structure to the game as long as it doesn't become a task list every time I join a server. Sometimes I want to collect some supplies and just head north away from the hot spots along the coast. You will find some adventure no matter where you go.

At the end of the day it's just a game. Some like it, some don't. Most people will agree that the DayZ mod has been very good for the developer of the ArmA series. The mod has sold a lot of copies of ArmA2 CO. That is a good thing.

You're preaching to the choir here, I love this game as you may have read.

All I am saying is that I am sure that at some point some goals and missions will be created for it. Not that I want goals and missions, but that I am sure they will.

Rocket seems to be out ahead of the planned Vostok Games Release (Late 2013) of a F2P disaster based MMO called Suvarium. Losely based on the STALKER series as its the same development team under another name after the failed to secure the IP rights to STALKER after the collapse of GSC Games.


Not a big fan of the Pay to have a better weapon model of online gaming, so I hope Rocket doesn't take DayZ that direction as well.

I agree to a certain extent. Financially, this is an extremely good thing. I figure on the downside, that most people who bought ARMA 2 just to play DayZ, won't actually play vanilla ARMA 2.

I'm well aware that the mod is an Alpha, but how much of the basic mechanics/code will really be improved by the beta stage, or final? Right now we're using the same zombies (or very similar) that have been around for years, possibly even since Armed Assault. Due to the engine's limitations, I'm doubting we'll see any improvement to the zombies' awkward animations and behavior. I hope I'm wrong about this. The mod in general has definitely improved in the last couple of weeks though.

I also want to say thanks to the people here for actually letting people offer opinions which aren't always completely positive. Most forums if you say something that isn't positive, the fans will shove you out the door. Even on SimHQ this happens sometimes too. (I'm looking at you Cliffs of Dover subforums)

Does the food and equipment respawn every so often? 50 something people roaming around a small map sooner or later stuff is going to run out.

was playing on a server today and someone stated a town was free from infection. I'm assuming all the zombies were killed there.

Zombies and loot respawns every 30 minutes or so and it gets despawned when no players are nearby so as not to bod the server down.

I am playing it as my goal is simply survival, and i'm liking it I don't mind if they add an actual goal but i dont know what sort of goal really . I would not like it to be a quest type thing. Go here find cure A go there get cure B , go to lab C and mix cures D , find and fix zombies E. I am cool with the whole open endness of it without any questy type stuff. I look at the map when i spawn in and decide where i am going, sometimes i get diverted by a lack of food or water, lack of blood and have to change tack, but try and keep my main mission goal in head, survival.

Like someone above mentioned , maybe to actually get out of Chernarus is the ultimate goal, but they would need to really increase the map size and change spawn points. Make it hard to get to the edge of the map somehow ? Dont really know how that would work. I definitely would not like to see it end up as do this first before you can move on to that type of boringness.

A few times i have got down to minimal ammo , no food and no water, i have even had no ammo, the game changes drastically for me then and i have to take risks i normally would not to get myself back in the black. Like i said , i am just enjoying the open map and dealing with seeing how long i can last.

I enjoy the game very much, I have not had such an experience with PC gaming since I first played Jane's Longbow 1 and/or EF2000 (circa 1996-97)! To me, DayZ is to ARMA as Counter Strike was to Half-Life if not way more!

By the way, seems that DayZ is helping out with ARMA II sales recently. ARMA II is at the #10 slot of Best Sellers (PC) at Amazon!

Yep, I also feel that the map and the open nature of the gameplay is what makes it fun. Everytime I play DayZ, I have a look at the map, set myself some sort of objective, mostly "today let's have a look at what is there", and then the very dangerous nature of the place does the rest. It's often a lot like playing hide and seek as a kid - you experiment with ways of not getting seen and not getting caught, and it feels rewarding when you manage to see others without being seen, and survive another day. Ultimately, my guess is that once you've gone around the map and start to know it really well, things will become less fun, so I play it at a slow pace currently.

When I watch the vids and hear the players, it kind of sounds like they are getting a bit carried away. I guess it's a much better experience when one plays in a group, which I have not done. It does seem though that some of the these players are creating a much more intense game in their imaginations than what I am seeing there onscreen. In tht regard it makes me think that dayz is overrated and carried aloft by the hype of Internetz fans, but maybe I too would get very into it if I were playing within a squad

. It's like the game is amazing and intense because certain players want it to be so, more so than because it actually is. when little girls squeal when seeing Justin Bieber, its more because of how they are conditioned to think he is like AMAZING, when objectively speaking his music is not all qthat. (to be fairif dayz were music it wouldn't be that bad). That's what it reminds me of when I watch thiese vids where the Internetz boys squeal in terrified delight when what I see is piss poor animation of a few zombies npcs awkwardly running toward them, very so-so graphics in many areas, bugginess (zombies running through walls), lack of melee combat, the overall clunkiness of the arma interface. (though to be fair, the landscape looks very impressive). So maybe I am objecting more to the actual hype and the giddy excitement of some of the players, which seems out of proportion to what the game seems to offer, than the actual game.

It's a very cool concept though, and hopefully one that will be realized in Arma3 (think I read that there will be a Dayz mod for that, too).

Does anyone else think that some of the hype and mania (at least on the part of folks in some of thee videos) is a bit over the top?

I think that it's not a case of hype, because it has been stated many times what the game is. I think that game in it's currentform is the perfect place for true roleplaying, and all that goes hand in hand with that. I love that it's providing a platform for open roleplay and I'm really enjoying peoples stories and tales of their adventures.

Fair enough. I think for me to get excited about those stories I would have to have had a few of my own worthwhile ones in the game, instead of blundering about in the dark as a newbie, getting munched on , shot, or bored/frustrated enough to quit. Not mention getting kicked due to server crashes.

Oh definitely mate. If you find a buddy or two, or a particularly tense situation, I'm sure your own stories will come out.

I posted (politely) sentiments similar to Hogdriver's and Tao's in the other thread here a couple weeks ago, and just got trolled for my trouble.

Since then, my regular gaming group's gotten into it heavily, and it can be fun that way. I've died once so far, on my first day playing, solo at the nw airfield. Not died since...though not for lack of being in ridiculous situations with the crazy bastages I'm gaming with (Pmike, Mac, etc).

So...my character is on day 15, well equipped, and skilled at stayin' alive.

All that said...my original sentiment stands. It's lacking atm. No goals, nothing to build towards. Hopefully it gets better. It has its moments and you want it to deliver on its promise.

Peppergomez, I think you are focusing on the imperfections and lack of scripted direction (too common in RPGs these days) as opposed to using the game as a great live post apocalypse sandbox and opportunity to role play.

Most of us enjoying it also see the imperfections (especially the server problems) but are busy roleplaying or exploring or trying to get out of some bad circumstance, i.e. some of my favorite situations in DayZ have come when I am low on food or low on ammo, or even when I accidentally lost my backpack, and trying to stay alive, risking going into dangerous areas hoping to find food/ammo/matches knowing a bad move could spell the end, but if I don't try something I will die anyhow. There's been plenty of times where some zombie or bandit or even innocent survivor surprised/scared the crap out of me and I screamed out loud.

DayZ is popular no doubt, and some of the discussion and videos are probably hype/staged, but there is tons of genuine enjoyment for many of us, it just sounds like you are somehow not connecting with it, or maybe you tried it out after hearing the hype and maybe had higher expectations based on some of the hype?

It is only an alpha after all and much of the experience is up to how you play it and what you want to get out of it, not the typical Fallout3/Dead Island scripted story so not to everyone's taste IMHO.

Anyhow this pro/con discussion is a good one, lots of good points and no-one should feel like they have to love or hate it.

The lack of actual stated goals is the biggest draw for me and I know Rocket the mod creator has stated they'll never be missions or quests in this mod the open endedness is its strength. You don't need a goal given to you you need to make a goal. Last night a few of us hooked up and moved north with no real objective than to search some towns. The fun we had was two of us hooking up with a third person using landmarks and the map to get there and then all the suspense that went along with getting to where we needed to be.

Earlier that night I was searching Stary Sobor for supplies and was cornered in a warehouse and eaten alive because I stood too close to the door while picking off zeds. Learned from a big mistake there as I have to start out from scratch (lost an M4 and a silenced M9 with all my other useful stuff. Sucked but thats the way it goes. In the future I think my goals will be to get a car or helo operational and tear ass around the map, maybe play a little Carmegeddon with bandits!

I think the mod is full of potential, and it's only an alpha, so it's meant to explore what works and what doesn't. But my main concern has been that since everything is so open and down to what players make with it, it's also down to what the community will feel like. Right now, you just need to browse the DayZ official forums to see that it's not really the most friendly place... at all... In fact, DayZ forums must be some of the most horrific ones I've ever seen. I remember once checking Minecraft forums and running away, but back then I had no idea how worse a forum could be. Now I know... Infected Chernarus is not the scariest place, oh no.... :p

LOL those forums are pretty hostile but its a side effect of the mods growing success since so many people are looking for an avenue to discuss their experience with the game. A lot of players coming into DayZ have no experience with the Arma world (I think many come from COD/BF3 type games).

What I also don't get why people keep saying that to enjoy this mod you have to be in a group? Most of the time I play as lone wolf sniper and at one point I got people so mad that I had multiple groups hunting for me.

Any idea why the terrain keeps turning white on me? Sometimes ok, then I turn and the moving grasses etc turn white.
Is this some Arma2 type issue? Drivers are up to date.
Trying a reinstall of the main game and OA, but if this is something else I'd like to hear it.

Don't waste your time reinstalling. Check this thread at the DayZ forum:

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=10897&highlight=wasteland

That is a feat by itself! I enjoy playing Lone Wolf as well. There are countless moments of excitement but many of boredom which makes this game a great simulation of survival around the great landscapes of the ARMA universe.

They need to have more enterable houses. I've hardly seen any I could go into.
Do zombies ever have anything on them or do you just try to avoid them altogether? The ones I've taken out had nothing.

sometimes they have bandages or cans of soda. Soldier zombies often carry a variety of loot.

A good example here of how single player situation is a fun challenge but can wig you out, especially in those areas near the coast:



I like his videos and he is usually calm in these videos, but it is good to see how the situation can turn quickly even for veteran players, also he mentions many of the alpha things that most of us can sometimes be frustrated by.

I like Sidestrafe's videos. This is my favorite of his:

Yeah that was a good one, it was like watching a scary movie, I kept telling him not to sit there in that doorway, secure the perimeter before going for the loot hehe.

I know he says his play style is to sit back and be cautious and that he gets a lot of crap from youtube comments for that, but I swear half the time I watch him I think he is moving in too fast and not being paranoid enough for me

Well, I guess that I one of those "minorities" that also don't like DayZ very much and also don't get all the "hype" regarding DayZ.

With this I also want to say that I appreciate the technical features and I'm really impressed with what was acomplished with DayZ, such as the eating, driking, player's sound and visual detectability, blood transfusions features, etc...


But what I don't like or enjoy with DayZ is the complete lack of objectives, specially final objectives (as well as "side missions"). Yes, I read and heard several times that the "objective" of DayZ is to survive as long as possible and that you make "your own objectives", blablabla... But call me "old fashion" if you like but ANY KIND of game (being computer games, board games, etc...) must have a begining, a middle and finally an END and when playing DayZ I always get the impression that there's absolutelly NO begining or end with this game.

What I would like to see or sugest if you prefer would be to have final objectives and by using some ideas that I read here, I would sugest two kinds of final objectives:
1- ESCAPE -> There's a damaged/stranded C-130 in Chernarus and the players must find parts to repair the plane, but also try to repair some high range transmission/comunication equipments with the objective of receiving news from the rest of the world in order to find a "safe heaven" (in the apocaliptic world) where to fly to. The player also must find lots of fuel because the "safe heaven" will be far from Chernarus. But the "final problem" is that there isn't a place for everyone even in a large plane such as the C-130...
2- FIND A CURE -> There is an underground research complex with surviving military and cientist which are working on a cure for the Zombie plage. The problem is that the location of the underground complex is unknown and sealed from the rest of the world and there's no way to comunicate with those cientists without using advanced comunication devices (which will be very hard to find). After establishing comunications with those cientists and military personnel, players (who manage to establish comunication) will learn that the cientists on the complex will need help to find several substances in order to develop a cure because those substances cannot be found on the underground complex and that same team of cientists and military don't have enough resorces (human, material and weaponry) to find those substances by themselfs. Will any player(s) help? If yes, after finding a cure those same players must find a way to spread the cure/antidote to cure the Zombie plage around the entire Chernarus countryside.

Well, maybe I'm daydreaming but this is what would get me to play and enjoy DayZ (these or any other kind of final and side objectives of course).

The conversation is interesting. I have not played DayZ yet.

IMHO, many of the SimHQ people that seem to be having problems understanding the apparent popularity are those who dislike playing RPG games. I think, based on observations here and on YouTube, that DayZ is really nothing more than an RPG set into a good simulator. To enjoy the game, I think you have to put yourself into the role you want to play; the difference here seems to be that DayZ requires much more role playing than many so-called RPG's.

Yeah even in RPGs I usually avoid the main plot and do all the side missions first, so DayZ is right up my alley as I can role play how I want and make up my own goals (besides survival)

Btw i did continue to play this...until the latest update which made all weapons and zombies disappear. It's like playing MS Flight with no traffic.

The only thing I don't care for about DayZ is that every dadgum server in the world is running it. Can't find a coop game of OA to save my life.

The zombie apocalypse thing bores the hell out of me, it's so overdone.

We had 6 to 8 guys on last night at different times and had a blast. I am new to the arma game so it still seems fresh for me but even some of the srma vets seem to be having a good time.
Our mix of servers goes from post noobie to expert with most in the hardcore stage.

SAR is my fav mission type and last night we had a player down in a bush, blood at 2000 and rather far S for our normal ops. It took quite a long time to locate and recover the player but the entire team made it back to camp, very stressfull op :}

And that is what this game does well, fear of death because its hard to find all the things your going to need again , fear of failure and letting a player down either to a bad decision or ability.
And it does recreate some of that mystery that scripted games seem to lack by letting players make all kinds of bad decisions. Falls and broken bones, lack of food/water, temp loss in the rain , day/night cycles, spotty equipment drops, finding your way about the map, navigating for a squad op, and crazed zombies trying to eat you .

The SimHQ bunch, aka the clan wallace have good supplies in 2 servers with more to be added soon and welcome anyone to come try the game again.

That part about having to role-play more than RPGs I completely agree with. I like RPGs (not the Japanese ones though) but I don't care for DayZ. I really think to enjoy DayZ you need to play like the guys in the Youtube vids do. With like-minded people , and then basically play like we did when we played "soldiers" as kids. Without many defined goals, and no "end" to reach, you have to make-believe more than your average game.

I just started playing Dead Island again today after a long absence, and it is still my favorite zombie game. If they could make a game like Dead Island, but with more survival aspects and a more open world, I think I'd be very happy. I like how there is a story to Dead Island, with goals and an ending to work toward, but it also lets you mess around and do a little exploring or pointless fun stuff along the way.

That's when i break out the filter. If i don't want to play DayZ i type in I44, Warfare etc in the filter.

One reason I don't like Dayz is it seems they are over controlling people.

From what I understand people can't create their own servers unless they ask permission.( am I wrong?).
Secondly there is not a single player mode, despite there was someone who managed to create a single player mission of the mod in the end that person was forced to delete the single mission of Dayz from his website. http://kronzky.info/missions/arma/dayzsp/

I have the feeling Dayz creators have more control over the game than BOHEMIA INTERACTIVE ever had.

When most of us install a mod we are free to create our own servers and play it with other friends. Also we are free to make our own missions single or multiplayer, which it isn't the case for Dayz. Feels like Dayz creators have gotten control and decides who can create servers or make any new missions with their mod.

Bohemia interactive is making a lot of money thanks to this mod so in the end these issues won't matter as long as they keep having good sales.

Dean "Rocket" Hall is the lead programmer for DayZ, and even though he does this Mod as a separate project, he is actually an employee of Bohemia, so in an indirect (or maybe direct) way, they are the ones who control who can do what regarding the Mod.

http://dayzwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Rocket

I didn't know he works for Bohemia. Now I can understand the reasons.

I still believe there should be a single player version of the mod. I particularly like playing it alone and finding a server takes time and in may cases have bad performance during multiplayer, instead when playing the single player version never had low fps at all.

There shouldn't be a single player version this is designed from the ground up to be a multiplayer experience. Rocket the mod creator has stated this repeatedly and doesn't owe anyone a singleplayer version, as for the site that had the mission that was 100% unauthorized. If you want your own server you can apply to host DayZ (AFAIK) but your server needs to meet the mod requirements and it has to be public too. A good number of us play DayZ regularly and while sometimes we have spotty performance (lag/connection wise) the overall experience online is great and usually hassle free. Remember this is still in alpha stage and our participation helps shape the mod and find bugs at the same time. If you can't handle issues and strange things happening you shouldn't be playing an alpha version of anything.

Since when a single player mission can be unauthorized?. I make a mission using ACE mod or any other mod and I can play it with other friends. What's the difference?.

I played Dayz in single player and it's as valid as doing it multiplayer. where is the problem?.

Why does anyone have to apply to host a server that runs Dayz, when I can do it freely using any other mod?. Why does it have to be the exception?.

The other mods don't have to connect to the DayZ master server to work. When comparing DayZ to other mods it apples to oranges the only thing similar is that its a mod.

And yes the singleplayer mission was a mission but created using dayZ code and not authorized. I'm not trying to argue for the sake of arguing but DayZ is 100% supposed to be multiplyer. It may change but for now thats the case. IMHO singleplayer would totally suck the interaction with other humans is the core of the mod.

DayZ is free, and it is the way it is because the dev who made it, and continues to develop it wants it that way, simple as that. For discussion on why that is and to see posts by the dev about it you can check out:
http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php

Not sure that you will get any more satisfactory answers about why DayZ is not as you would expect here on SimHQ, some of us enjoy DayZ (I'm one of them) and some of us don't like it, for those that don't like it I think there are plenty of other Arma2 mods or even Zombie games to check out.

If you want to play a singleplayer Arma2 zombie mod see:
Dawn of the Apocalypse SP

I see no value in a single player mod. For me, the Day Z experience is all about fear. I am not afraid of the Zombies, I ma afraid of the bandits. I literally get anxiety about my gear. I do NOT want to lose it. Unless I am intentionally trying to die, the chances of a 1.7.1.5 zombie taking my gear are extremely low.

I understand 1.7.2 zombies are way more aggressive/capable so, that may add a new level of fear but, I have typically only worried about bandits.

I would LOVE a co-op, closed server to bring my friends onboard that do not know ArmA and would get frustrated or be dangerous because of noob mistakes. But, once they get the hang of it, live servers only!

I'd enjoy it more if I figure out how to install the thing.

Is there an install program out there that patches and update everything automatically reducing my workload to just putting the Arma2 CO disc into the disc drive ?

If you have a working copy of arma2 and operation arrowhead just google sickboys addon, called sixlauncher.

Run it and pick a server and it will install the mod and grab the arma patches for it, then hit play. Even i can do it :}

Thanks UnderTheRadar for so clearly laying that out. This is the very heart of DayZ. It is a survival SIMULATION. The real human threat element can never be duplicated in single player.

As someone who primarily plays solo and eschews most online gaming, I understand perfectly why there is no single player DayZ mode. This was designed from the ground up to be a social experiment/interaction. It wouldn't work offline.

I must be the only one who enjoyed playing it single player then.

Errr.. NO! At least not in my case - Actually I do enjoy some RPG games very much! Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are two examples of RPG games that I enjoy very much and these games are definitly in the group of my favourite games.
Any and all decent RPG games such as Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas always have a Story, missions related to the story, side missions and AN END (at least storyline wise) and it's the lack of these features (which I underlined) that drives me to completly dislike DayZ and saying that DayZ is a "typical RPG game" and that people that don't like RPGs are the ones that don't like DayZ is also something that I completly disagree on!

Like someone already mentioned here in this thread I also find annoying that everytime I want to search an ArmA2 Co-op server I basically only find DayZ servers (Days infested ArmA2). Yes, I know that I can put in the filter "Domination", "Evo", "Warfare", etc... but those missions that I quoted aren't my favourite ones, what I really like to play in ArmA2 regarding MP are "simple" Co-Op missions and DayZ really made the finding of such missions a much harder task!

Thanks. Got it up and running.

Getting too old for these patience type games.And I don't feel the tension when a zombie kills me.
Walking around for a long time and finding nothing and not knowing where you are bores me.
But I'm on the wrong side of the fence because every man and his dog seems to love this mod.
BI would be licking their lips because a community mod has made them a house of cash.

Gees a miilion and one zombie and vampire shows on TV now.
I'm a bit over the whole thing that GEN Yers seem to love.
I hated Buffy when everyone around me loves it.

Gave up on tactical shooters and back simracing(flight sims are way over my head and only people born with the better genes are lucky enough to enjoy them.)Cougar gathering dust.(great for ROF I guess)

Back in Iracing and love it.

IRacing isn't nowhere near real life racing either because of zero gravity forces or backside in the seat feel and NO FEAR of being injured or worse.

Still it's a great bit of fun.

And that's what gaming is for me, fun.
Not grinding my brain into a deep state of self hate and depression.

With racing ,you can be crap and still get fun out of it because you're still moving.You're not stuck in a state of flux.

Fallout 3 and New Vegas are a league above Dayz imho.
Love those games.

So much to do and explore.
Most of the houses in the Dayz mod you can't explore.

Oh I'm hopeless at direction so that's another reason why I hate the Dayz mod.
I keep ending up at the same places all the time and forget my steps.

LOL real life is for that.

Not this mod lol.
Spendin hours and hours surviving in a game when real life does it.

I think that is the reason I don't like it.
It plays TOO much like real life and not like a game.
Without any real ending or goals.

Darren we all have games we like or dislike so to each their own. Each of us have our own reasons for what we like or dislike. Most of us playing Dayz like the anti-game element (no missions/ defined purpose) and the hardcore nature of everything. But I think I speak for everyone when I say we understand that not everyone feels the same way about it.

Where the f*** do you live?

Personally I don't even think DayZ is so much about the zombies, they are just part of the post apocalypse environment, the humans are much more interesting and scary, especially once you get some decent military gear and start working together via TS with a squad and head up north where the good loot is.

Here is a good example of how tactical it can be (thanks to whoever posted this good series of videos in another thread):



For those that think DayZ is just a mindless zombie shooter, most of us who have been playing for a while would beg to differ, but also I acknowledge it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it is interesting to see just how much dislike it generates in some, I guess it is the popularity and hype, but just think of all the extra copies sold that are supporting Arma3 development and engine bug fixes.